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The Mounting Problem of Temple Denial

(GLORIA Center-IDC Herzliya) David Barnett - Temple Denial is the belief that no Jewish Temple ever existed in Jerusalem. Yet this claim is counter to Islamic tradition. Koranic historian and commentator Abu Jafar Muhammad al-Tabari, who chronicled the seventh century Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, wrote that one day when Umar finished praying, he went to the place where "the Romans buried the Temple [bayt al-maqdis] at the time of the sons of Israel." Eleventh-century historian Muhammad Ibn Ahmad al-Maqdisi and fourteenth-century Iranian religious scholar Hamdallah al-Mustawfi acknowledged that the al-Aqsa Mosque was built on top of Solomon's Temple. During the Palestine Mandate, the Supreme Muslim Council published yearly guidebooks to the Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount). The 1924, 1925, 1929, and 1935 guidebooks all stated that the Haram al-Sharif's "identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to the universal belief, on which David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings." The recognition of the Temple Mount's importance to Jews in the guidebooks continued until 1950. However, by 1954, the references to Solomon's Temple disappeared. Palestinian nationalist ideology is predicated on the rejection of Zionism and Jewish ties to the Land of Israel. The continued spread of Temple Denial poses a serious problem to a peace process based on coexistence and mutual recognition.
2011-09-16 00:00:00
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